


Sabotage

by eerian_sadow



Series: PJ Anniversary challenge 2014 [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Assassination, Community: prowlxjazz, Friendship, Gen, Implied Violence, Non-graphic character death, Offscreen character death, Sabotage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2014-08-14
Packaged: 2018-02-13 04:43:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2137398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The pilot just died.  It can't really get worse, can it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sabotage

**Author's Note:**

> written for the 2014 anniversary challenge at [](http://prowlxjazz.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://prowlxjazz.livejournal.com/)**prowlxjazz**.
> 
> filling the prompt: the pilot just died

Prowl looked up with a frown as the shuttle's trajectory shifted and they began gliding downward. The majority of the other Autobots in the passenger cabin didn't seem to notice anything amiss, except for Jazz who was up with the same concerned expression the tactician was wearing.

"Are we tilting?" The saboteur asked softly.

"Yes," Prowl replied, spreading his wings to take in more sensory data. "And picking up speed."

"Frag, that's not good. I'm going to head to the cockpit and find out what's going on."

"I will remain here and keep our troops calm. Signal if we need to begin an evacuation."

"You got it." The visored mech unbuckled his safety harness and stood up. As soon as he was on his feet, he could feel the odd angle of the deck beneath him. "Be back."

The Praxian nodded and began looking around the rest of the passenger cabin, trusting Jazz to see to their safety while he planned for the worst case scenario.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Jazz frowned as the faint scent of a spark flare reached his olfactory sensors. It was buried under the smell of purged energon and he would have missed it if his sensors weren't so finely tuned.

His frown deepened when he saw the greyed-out form slumped in the pilot's seat. "Headwind?"

The saboteur knew, even as he approached the corpse that there would be no answer. He'd used it enough to match the smells to a tasteless chemical poison that deactivated a mech by raising the pressure in his fluid lines until their spark flared out due to over-fueling. Purging was the body's last, desperate attempt at lowering the pressure in energon lines before the deactivation flare.

It was a nasty way to go, and Headwind had really deserved better.

His optics confirmed his guess moments later, as he leaned the dead mech back in the seat so that he could see the control console. Coolant and hydraulic fluid had leaked out through the weak points in his lines, and Headwind's mouth was flecked with the energon he had vomited onto the controls.

Jazz stomped down the urge to be squeamish about the purged energon and reached for the internal comm system. He was about to give Prowl a really bad day.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

_"Attention Autobot troops."_

Prowl stood at the sound of Jazz's voice on the PA system.

_"This is Commander Jazz. I'm currently in the cockpit taking over flight duties because our pilot has just died."_

There were shocked murmurs and one whimpered "We're all going to die!" at the saboteur's words. Prowl turned and glared at the troops as the other officer continued speaking.

_"I know that I was in charge of this mission and that Commander Prowl is technically on leave, but in light of our current crisis, I'm turning command of this unit over to him while I try to safely land this shuttle. Follow his evacuation plan and his orders until someone else arrives to relieve him. Make me proud, Ops."_

"I am aware that you had all considered this raid on the Yuss garrison a training run, but our situation has changed." The tactician steeled his features into his command face, hiding his worry over Jazz and the troops in their command. "For our safety, we will be evacuating the ship in order to minimize casualties in case Commander Jazz is unable to land safely. There are fifteen of you and only fourteen sets of emergency jets. In order for all of us to safely depart, four of us will have to pair up."

In the back row of seats, Bumblebee reached out and took Mirage's hand and then nodded to the tactician firmly. A moment later, a second minibot--one whose name Prowl didn't know--approached him. He spoke with a voice that was surprisingly deep for his small frame. "Ricochet will partner with Punch, sir, even if they don't say so. Commander Jazz says you'd never ask us to do anything you wouldn't do yourself, though, so i'm volunteering to pair up with you so that the Commander can have a pack too. Just in case."

"Thank you, Agent. We will be last off, to ensure the safety of the others. Autobots, retrieve your jetpacks and proceed to the drop ramp. Agent...?"

"Baritone, sir," the deep voiced minibot replied.

Prowl nodded, filing the name away. "Agent Baritone, retrieve a pack for Commander Jazz and take it to him in the cockpit. Then meet me at the drop ramp."

The rest of the Special Operations team moved toward the drop ramp, retrieving emergency jet packs from their storage compartments as they went. The tactician noted that Ricochet and Punch did, indeed, partner up and made a note to look into their relationship further after this crisis was over. He did not disapprove if they were more deeply involved, but bonded mechs could be a liability in their field.

Once he was satisfied with the way the ops mechs were moving, Prowl opened a private comm to Jazz. _"Jazz, be honest. How bad is it?"_

_"The control systems have all been reset or reprogrammed and there's a virus planted in the computer that's trying to disable the stering fuctions. If I don't stay on the controls all the way down to the point of no return, this shuttle is going to fall right into Yuss. The assassin knew exactly what he was doing, and it might have worked if you and I hadn't been on board."_

_"I am aware of the odds of you escaping at that point, Jazz, but Baritone is bringing you an emergency jet just in case. If you can get out before you crash, do it. I... I don't want to lose you."_

_"Not fond of the idea myself, but better me than nine hundred civilians."_ The saboteur's reply was somber. _"Take care of my mechs. Don't let anyone split them up."_

Prowl nodded, even though Jazz couldn't see him. He knew the visored mech was referring to the partnered pairs inside his unit as much as the unit itself. _"I won't."_

_"Good. See you on the other side, Prowl."_

_"See you on the ground, Jazz."_

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Jazz watched with a single processing thread as his mechs evacuated the shuttle. They were all following Prowl's orders to the letter--not that he'd doubted them for a nanoklik--and looked like they'd all be on the ground in time to see the shuttle go up in one impressive explosion.

One that would be right in the middle of the Decepticon outpost if he had anything to say about it.

The rest of his processing threads were focused on flying the ship and keeping the persistent shut-down code at bay. The code itself was elegant, but it wasn't Soundwave's work, so the saboteur was able to manage it with only a portion of his processing power. He was so preoccupied that he didn't notice when Baritone stepped into the cabin.

He did, however, notice the blaster the small mech jammed into his side.

"Aw, Baritone, why did it have to be you? I actually liked you, mech."

The minibot gave him a grin that was filled with malice. "Thanks, Jazz. Too bad I can't say the same for you."

Jazz diverted as many of his processing threads as he could toward dealing with the double agent and kept the bulk of his attention on the controls. The shuttle still come down into civilian inhabited areas for another twelve kliks and he had to keep them in the air for at least that long. "So, how long have you been working for Megatron?"

"I work for Soundwave, thank you." Baritone punctuated the declaration with another jab of his blaster. "And I always have. Just been looking for the best moment to take you out."

"Big Blue finally got tired of me, huh?" The black and white mech diverted the processing thread he had been monitoring the sensors with and used it to open a comm line to Prowl. "So he thinks you're good enough to do the job when no other 'Con has been able to take me out since the war started?"

"Well, I _am_ the one with the blaster to your side."

Jazz checked the shuttle's location and grinned. He could let the shuttle fall anytime now. "Sure, but I've survived a lot worse than a close range blaster shot."

Baritone squawked when Jazz lunged out of the chair toward him.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The Ops mechs evacuated the ship with cool precision, jumping in an unspoken order that was orderly and as precise as any group of jump troops. ONly Mirage and Bumblebee argued his orders, refusing to jump until Prowl himself was leaving the shuttle. It was strangely comforting to have two of Jazz's best mechs waiting to jump in tandem with himself and his largely unknown partner; he hadn't had to evacuate an aerial transport since his training.He was beginning to wonder what was keeping Baritone, though.

Then his commlink pinged with an incoming call request, which he answered without hesitation. Prowl frowned when Jazz did not speak directly to him, instead using the open line as a message service.. The saboteur's words were concerning, but when he heard Baritone speak the energon went cold in his lines.

He had allowed the assassin back into the cockpit with the saboteur, who was distracted with trying to fly the shuttle.

The tactician didn't have time to do more than turn around before the shuttle lurched downward. Jazz had clearly lost control--or let go of the controls--and was dealing with Baritone. As he stumbled across the suddenly uneven deck, he hoped the saboteur was more armed than he had looked.

"Prowl, let's go!" Bumblebee grabbed the black and white mech's arm and tugged.

"The assassin is in there! Jazz needs our help!"

"Jazz knew this was likely a suicide mission," Mirage replied, taking his other arm. "He'll take the assassin with him. We can't afford to lose you, too!"

"No!" Prowl refused to leave his friend behind. It had been one thing when he had believed Jazz was going to bring the shuttledown mostly intact, and it was completely different now that he knew the saboteur was facing down an assassin.

"We are going!" The noblemech locked his hand around the tactician's arm and sprinted toward the open hatch. Prowl had no choice but to follow or be dragged with him.

They leaped into the open air as a small explosion blew out the cockpit canopy. Bumblebee wrapped his legs around the horrified Praxian and activated his emergency jetpack as a solitary figure plummeted toward Cybertron's unforgiving ground.

Somehow, they landed safely, just before the shuttle plowed into Yuss' outer wall and exploded.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Jazz pulled off the emergency jetpack as he staggered out of the edge of the blast zone. A small part of him was disappointed that he hadn't been able to use the compromised shuttle to destroy the Decepticon outpost--that would have been a nice 'frag you' to give to Soundwave--but mostly he was glad to have survived. His plating was melted in places, he had a few shrapnel injuries and Baritone had managed to get his energon dagger away long enough to stab him once, but he was _alive_.

"Jazz!"

Bumblebee's relieved voice was like music to his audios. The minibot dashed out of the smoke cloud--the shuttle must still have been burning to disguise that bright plating so well--and to his side. The visored mech grinned tiredly. "You know it."

"Mirage thought you'd promoted him for sure this time, boss." The yellow mech ducked under the black and white's less damaged arm and took some of his weight. "Prowl and I were out here looking for you as soon as the fireball died down, though."

"I almost did promote him this time. Baritone wasted enough of my time that I got caught in the explosion when I bailed out."

"I told you he was no good," Bumblebee said darkly.

"So you did," Jazz agreed, letting the small mech lead him through the rubble. "Next time I'll listen better."

"You better. I don't want to have to come into the Well after you just to kick your aft."

The saboteur smiled at his subordinate. "That isn't a fate I'd wish on Unicron himself."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Hey, Prowl, look what I found!"

The tactician looked up at Bumblebee's words and felt relief wash through his systems. "Jazz!"

"The one and only," The saboteur replied with a grin. "A little worse for wear, but it's me."

The Praxian made his way to Jazz's side and carefully ducked under the visored mech's free arm. "Do _not_ do that again."

"Hey, the assassin still being on board was not part of my plan. Had no idea Soundwave had planted an agent in my unit." Jazz did his best not to flinch when Prowl jostled his injuries. "You got out all right?"

"Only because Mirage dragged me out of the shuttle. I was ready to come back for you."

"That was stupid, mech." Jazz gave his friend a grin. "Touching, but stupid. Next time, listen when I send you a warning."

"And let you get yourself killed being equally stupid? No chance of that." Prowl returned the grin, still too relieved at Jazz's survival to worry about keeping his officer mask in place. "But Jazz?"

"Yeah?"

"I am never riding back to base with one of your mission teams again. Not even if it extends my leave by another ten cycles."

Despite how much it hurt, Jazz laughed.


End file.
